Opening Clip Of Munich

"What Does It Mean To Be A Jew?" (Munich review)

Munich

* * * *

After reading an article on Steven Spielberg, shortly afterwards I arrived at the conclusion that the man is a genius. While I have seen most of his films (who hasn‘t?), the article mentioned two of his exceptions from his traditional narrative structure. The first was Empire of The Sun, and the second one was the much more modern Munich. I was aware of Munich’s Oscar nomination for Best Picture of 2006, but I had never tried to watch the film. On spring break at a friend’s house I was asked if I would be willing to watch Munich, sometime down the week, and I gladly seized the opportunity to watch one of Spielberg’s exception.

I knew nothing about the film aside from the several Oscar nominations it had received. I didn’t even know the name of the actors starring in it, because for some strange reason I thought Tom Cruise would be in it. He wasn’t, instead Eric Bana plays the leading character, and does so very well.

The film starts with the Black September murders at the 1972 Munich Olympics, an event I was unaware about, but which my friends who are much older than me, remembered clearly. As true Spielberg fashion he opens the film very effectively, I really don’t know any other director in the business who can hook you into the world of the film as strongly as Spielberg does. Perhaps that is one of the paramount keys to the huge success of his films.

The film moves from those events and onto a group of five strangers who are being hired by prime minister Golda Meir to participate in a black box operation to track down and kill those responsible. Together, Avner (Eric Bana), Steve (Daniel Craig), Carl (Ciaran Hinds), Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), and Hans (Hanns Zischler) must design master plans to kill the target without leaving any tracks that might incriminate them. They move from target to target, but as they make their way down the list, not only do the names keep increasing, but also the things that go wrong.

I don’t want to give much away of the film, that is not what reviews should be about, but merely would like to say that Munich at times is a very intense film. A particular scene in which a bomb explodes next to the room of the protagonist, and a couple’s room blew me away. The graphic images of the aftermath of a bomb put me in a state of disbelief and shock. It seemed to real to bear.

Not only does the film have masterful editing, but it’s production value is through the roof, which of course is still typical of a Steven Spielberg movie. I wouldn’t necessarily classify this film as an action film, because it is too realistic to be. A spy thriller is, too, inaccurate for that falls under the genre of action as well. This is a historical portrait, for it lets one in on something that really did happen. Of the actors in the film are too good looking to be real, but the rest of the film seems very little dramatized, the situations depicted couldn’t have been rendered any other way then their true form.

I recommend this film to anyone, even as graphic as it may be, it’s an important film about something that happened in our recent history. I see why it’s an exception in Spielberg’s repertoire, but still is a great movie. Now some of you might wonder why this review lacks the perfect fifth star, and that’s simply because the movie is too long, and as wonderful as it is, I did wonder off to what time it was. If only it was condensed a half our from it’s three hours. Still, find the time to watch this movie, and see for yourself this masterpiece by Steven Spielberg.

"What Does It Mean To Be A Jew?" (Munich review)

Munich

* * * *

 
I don’t want to give much away of the film, that is not what reviews should be about, but merely would like to say that Munich at times is a very intense film. A particular scene in which a bomb explodes next to the room of the protagonist, and a couple’s room blew me away. The graphic images of the aftermath of a bomb put me in a state of disbelief and shock. It seemed to real to bear. Ciarán Hinds), Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), and Hans (Hanns Zischler) must design master plans to kill the target without leaving any tracks that might incriminate them. They move from target to target, but as they make their way down the list, not only do the names keep increasing, but also the things that go wrong. After reading an article on Steven Spielberg, shortly afterwards I arrived at the conclusion that the man is a genius. While I have seen most of his films (who hasn‘t?), the article mentioned two of his exceptions from his traditional narrative structure. The first was Empire of The Sun, and the second one was the much more modern Munich. I was aware of Munich’s Oscar nomination for Best Picture of 2006, but I had never tried to watch the film. On spring break at a friend’s house I was asked if I would be willing to watch Munich, sometime down the week, and I gladly seized the opportunity to watch one of Spielberg’s exception.

IT'S ALIVE 1974 TRAILER

It Doesn't Look Very Alive (It's Alive review)

It’s Alive

*

Wow, where should I start with this piece of crap. Well let’s start on how I came to even watch this film. I loved watching Bravo’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments, and they for some unknown reason had It’s Alive on the list. Why they thought it was scary I don’t know.

The story is about a couple who have a baby that has been mutated by radiation. When the mother gives birth the baby kills everyone in the room, and escapes. So the whole movie is the parents and police tracking down the baby, who keeps on murdering innocent people.

First of all you would think that in a horror film they would at least dump all their money on making the monster (baby) as scary as possible, but no, instead the “mutated” baby looks like a mix between a squirrel, a Chihuahua, and a pig. It really is much more comical than scary. The baby also moves funny, like a stop animation kind of creature.

On the other hand the film moves very slowly, one hardly gets to see the baby, and when we do it’s a fucking joke, and the film overall is very boring. The movie should not be called a horror film, or even a sci-fi, for it’s more like a terrible, sometimes funny comedy that I would never see again. That is the only reason I gave this a star at all, it’s because I did laugh at how silly the monster was, and everything else in the movie.

Please do yourself a favor and don’t watch this movie or the sequels that it spawned, why there are sequels I don’t know, it’s beyond my understanding. Clearly one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and the worst horror movie of all time if you can call it that.